Fields shipped out with first round of cuts

There’s been more than a little movement in the Seattle clubhouse Thursday morning.

The first round of cuts has been posted, and 2008′s first-round draft pick, right-handed reliever Josh Fields, is among the five players to be moved over to the minor league camp.

Other players moved included one pitcher, tracy Thorpe, catcher Israel Nunez, and a pair of infielders, Callix Crabbe and Oswaldo Navarro.

Fields will probably emerge a couple of times in the next two weeks to pitch in relief in Cactus League games because Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu wants to see Fields against big league pitchers.

But first, he wants to see him face big league pitching, but only after he’s tuned up against minor leaguers.

It didn’t have to be this way for Fields. If he’d signed in the weeks following last June’s draft, he would have been in the organzation last summer and maybe even have gotten a september promotion to the bigs. That would probably given the organization enough insight into his ability that he’d have been given a decent of a chance to make the opening day roster.

He held out successfully for about $250,000, but it if he was to have made the roster this year, he would have made up most of the difference thisyear, andhe’d have been a year closer to salary arbitration and, eventually free agency.

Sometimes it’s better to take a little less now if you can advance your career by doing so. But either way, he’s a Mariner, and based on his talent, it won’t be long before the former University of Georgia closer starts making the big money.